Portland Phoenix restaurant reviewer Brian Duff has penned a survey of changes in the 2009 dining landscape as well as a caution that the Portland food scene may be peaking. I hope he’s wrong about that.
In a separate article Duff notes his favorite dishes for the year: the Sole Francaise at Street & Co as Best Upscale Dish, and the Duck Soup at Pom’s as the Best Affordable Dish.
Category: General News
Trader Joe's, Wharf St, Bucket Lists, etc
Today’s issue of the Portland Daily Sun includes articles on the online effort to persuade Trader Joe’s to come to Portland (see also this earlier post)
Portland foodie activists are taking to the Web by the thousands in hopes of luring supermarket chain Trader Joe’s to Southern Maine.
At least two simultaneous Internet campaigns aimed at convincing the company to open a store in Greater Portland are under way, including a Facebook group and an online petition, each drawing more than 2,000 participants.
about Havana’s plans for a Wharf Street restaurant and renovations taking place at 51 Wharf
On a well-traveled stretch of cobblestone street that includes The Merry Table Crêperie on one end and Beal’s Ice Cream on the other, the owners at the 51 Wharf restaurant and lounge are reinvesting in their business, while across the street a Latin American-inspired casual fine dining restaurant is coming in to replace a defunct furniture store.
and Margo Mallar’s culinary bucket and wish list for 2010. Here’s a taste,
An understanding that the Mediterranean is much more than Italy and Greece. There’s a real dearth of North African, Middle Eastern, Turkish and Balkan food.
2nd Floor Visit
About Town paid a visit to the new 2nd floor of the Public Market House and posted a report on the newly expanded market.
Chairs and tables look out over Monument Square, making it a prime people-watching location (and the yet-to-be-completed glass elevator, also overlooking the square, will only heighten the experience).
“All of a sudden I’m beginning to feel this is really what I hoped it would be,” Horton says of the endeavor, which she sees not just as a public market for fresh foods and produce, but also as an “incubator for businesses.”
Tu Casa on BA Foodist Budget Eats List
BA Foodist blogger Andrew Knowlton included Tu Casa’s enchilada salvadoreña with tongue on his budget list of best restaurant dishes of 2009.
Food Ahead
The premier issue of Maine Ahead magazine includes interviews with Alan Cook, Executive Chef at Twenty Milk Street, and Ron Hodge, CEO of Hannaford, as well as articles on Laughing Stock Farm’s use of recycled cooking oil to heat their greenhouse and on Shipyard Brewing. Be aware that you’ll need to register for a free account to access the articles online.
Down East: Eat Like a Mainer
The January issue of Down East heralds 31 “people, places & dishes not to miss in 2010”. Here’s the list of Portland listings from the article:
- Seafood in the pan from Street & Co (1-4)
- Hot Suppa! (8)
- The BLT at Blue Spoon (9)
- Bob Garver, co-owner of Bard Coffee (11)
- The Corner Room (12)
- The cheese puffs from Hugo’s (14)
- The buttermilk panna cotta from Bresca (17)
- The mac & cheese from Five Fifty-Five (18)
- The Touchable, a cocktail invented by bartender John Myers (19)
- The mashed potato pizza from Otto Pizza (20)
- The mussels at Fore Street (24)
- The farm to table menu at The Farmer’s Table (26)
- Portland’s Dining Scene (31) – a brief look back prior to the current culinary boom at the contributing factors that got Portland restaurant culture to where it is now.
The January issue also includes a Maine Wedding Guide. Leslie Oster from Aurora Provisions and Craig Williams from Churchill Catered Events created the winter and fall wedding menus that appear in the article on wedding eats.
Alternative Catering
An article in today’s Press Herald surveys local caterers that specialize in vegan, vegetarian and other alternative dietary preferences.
Gone are the days when health-conscious party planners had to worry about whether the event’s caterer knew how to maintain a gluten-free kitchen or spot the myriad foods in which non-vegetarian ingredients lurk. Now local hosts and hostesses have the luxury of hiring an expert.
Duckfat Renovation & Expansion
Chow Maine reports on some planned changes at Duckfat including a kitchen renovation this winter and an expansion in 2011.
But in 2011 Portlanders can expect another Duck Fat. It will be a slightly different model. “A bar version, gastropub style version, with a bar, fries and more bar-type food. The new one should be able to make production fries that can be shipped to other locations.”
Portland Expo Food Review
Margo Mallar weighs in on the food available at the Portland Expo concession stand in an article in Tuesday’s Portland Daily Sun.
The pulled pork was more of a slider than a sandwich, not enough to share but it was quite tasty, especially when liberally slathered with Binga’s barbecue sauce. The $8 lobster roll, however, was an abomination. It was flavorless and had a mealy texture and looked like the regurgitated krill that mama penguins feed their babies.
The newspaper also included a feature article that finds Portland ahead of the curve on many of the top trends identified in the National Restaurant Association’s What’s Hot in 2010 survey, especially when it comes to eating local and organic.
December Bollard
The December issue of The Bollard provides a survey of the city’s African markets,
Customers like Ali are the reason many African markets have long consisted of little more than a freezer, a band saw, sacks of grain piled on the floor and a few large cans of baby formula. But that is changing. The newly opened Peace Food Market on Cumberland Avenue is bringing camel meat back to town (it tastes like beef), and several other markets have recently been renovated and now offer expanded food sections.
and a new installment of John Myers Land of the Forgotten Cocktails series where you will learn about ‘nognoscenti, ‘nog-heads and all things eggnog.
A tradition of my own making — one I’ve actually stuck to these last few years — is to treat the onset of Thanksgiving as Eggnog Season. From Thanksgiving Eve through New Year’s Day there’s usually a batch in the refrigerator or the fixin’s to whip one up.